Evacuation in buildings is usually a complicated issue to solve. Normally, in an evacuation situation, the use of elevators may be prohibited, for example, due to legislation or that the elevators are not fire proof. When considering evacuation in high buildings, the question whether to use elevators has to be evaluated again. If a building is very high and a fire occurs in the middle in terms of height of the building, it might not even be possible to evacuate people from the upper half of the building using staircases, for example, due to a fire. Thus, the use of elevators might be the only option for evacuation. Due to this, elevators may be designed to be usable also in evacuation situations. For example, a lobby area may be smoke protected, the elevators themselves may be fire protected, separate power supply for emergency situations may be provided, shafts may be pressurized etc.
A real evacuation situation, for example due to a fire, is a complex situation especially in high buildings where elevators can be used in the evacuation. People are afraid and their behavior might not always be rational under evacuation.
Furthermore, if both elevators and staircases can be used in an evacuation situation, it may be difficult for the people under evacuation to decide which option (elevator/staircase) to use, i.e. which option would result in a quicker or more efficient evacuation procedure. Furthermore, the evacuation situation may involve also a special group of people, for example, handicapped people, to whom the only available evacuation method is an elevator evacuation.
Based on the above, there is a need for a solution which provides a more efficient evacuation procedure when elevators are used in the evacuation.